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Wilson Kane wins a fortune and his future bride at a game of dice from the former pirate Balthasar. When he decides to go and get the girl, the pirate way, by kidnapping her, not only he finds out that she is more than a pirate could ever want from a wife... but that she has 4 identical sisters as well.

This discovery hits him when his men, who were supposed to help him out, each kidnaps a different girl... and none of them gets the right one! But Wilson Kane wants the girl he had met and no one else! Luckily for him it will be the girl herself to solve his problem and put an end to his dilemma...

a solution that will eventually fling her into a new way of life, aboard the Alidivento, across the Mediterranea sea!

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Friday, January 07, 2011

Chapter 9 Final Curiosities

Here's our final chunk of curiosities related to chapter 9.I know the structure of this chapter left some of you puzzled... but one of the reasons why it is called "midsummer night dream" is that most of it won't make sense now... but it will later.Think of it as a pond... I threw a pebble in it... wait for the ripples to spread across the surface and when they are gone you'll see a different reflection in the water.

In this chapter a certain amount of things happen and they feel unreal... Lio does not catch Foxy's love confession... Pifo doesn't catch Quoque's, Castalia doesn't realize Kane is confessing too... and there are also many epiphanies.

Kane has an actual dream... like all dreams it has weird colors! Or better yet... they feel like they are in color but they might be in black and white and our brain tricks us to believe that things are colored. Can we really be sure that what we see is what we see in dreams? Because most of the times things make so much sense when you dream them and then you wake up and think: that was wacko!Places feel like actual places but they are not and you are actor and spectator at the same time. This is one of those dreams where you see bridges and water... A bridge is always there when we are not certain about our future. Some people manage to cross the bridge in their dreams, because they are not scared of their future but a lot of people, all of sudden, find themselves in the water and in the water they have to deal with their fears.I often find sharks in my water - it's linked to how angry I am about stuff, usually.

Kane finds some kind of mermaid or fairy who looks very much like Castalia and pulls him through his dream.

For a second his mind gets sucked into the past... probably trying to figure why and where everything begun.

But if he tells his doctor that he has too look at his future not at his past... then he has to believe his own words... hence his subconscious suggest: let's not go there. Let's move ahead.

What happens next is one of those dreams were things seem to make sense but they don't. The tense of the verbs and time is not quite here and now, nor there and then, not in the future either. But apparently Kane has a peaceful place where he goes at night and that is Badia and his grandpa's house. He keeps re-living a certain night, the night the only guidance in his life left him to deal with crap all by himself... and he cannot let him go. So even though the grandpa is dead he keeps going back to him and asks him questions.

Only this time, sinking in the water with the mermaid/fairy, he saw Castalia so he is there to break free and say: I will disobey, I will trust someone.Now, remember that grandpa Cosimo is the one who left a scar on Kane's back to remind him he should never turn his back on anyone...

Clearly the boy took his word literally, and the scar helps him remember too, but he did not figure out one thing: if his grandpa died of old age, in his bed... it's because he trusted someone, he trusted Kane.

In this dream trust transitions from grandpa to Castalia. Kane is a sailor, after all, he just picked a new Polar Star. He needs something steady and unchanging to pick a direction and follow it. His grandfather was that something... until Castalia shows up and he can finally move ahead, out of that place of jaded emotions that kept him away from free choices and serene sleep.

Definitely his heart is the first thing to show him he is still alive and human.

The dream seals the deal.The next thing to come back to life is his body.

It's as if the heart had started pumping blood back into a system that had belonged to a golem, doing things because that's who he was and had no choice but being who he was.

Now for Kane has come a time where he can stop telling people how to live their lives and get to live his own.

So he sings. Even though he said he could not. He sings and does not care. He sings.Sorry, the song is something I made up, not an actual Neapolitan song.

I can finally answer some of the questions I could not talk about in the famous "crappy post". Sometimes I wish I could answer to your questions but if I do I give the story away and that's a major spoiler.So you have to be patient and wait for the story to unfold and trust the story...The question was: do they wipe after they poop?I said "no" back then.But the answer is: no, they use stones or wash.Three stones or stones in odd number because there are Muslims on board of Kane's ship.The habit of washing after going to the toilet (using a bidet - that Wikipedia says to be very common in France but I never saw one when I was living there... in fact most Italians have a mystical crisis when they go abroad and cannot find a bidet because we do wipe and wash, wipe alone is not enough...) most likely comes from the sharia which says that you must wash your anus after pooping or use stones. (and I made this veeeery simple but let's just leave it a that)

Is Kane Foxy's new dad? XDDDNo.No matter what the boy still has a stronger attachment to the doctor.He spent most of his time in sick bay talking to him and getting cured with fake medicines, before Lio showed up... and hence, sorry Wes, you are still the daddy.

But kids have to go their ways and the doc will do anything to have him cured.Keep on trying Wes!

What is Kane doing with his hand? He is saying "3"!Counting with fingers is very different around the World... take the Chinese way to count with fingers... in Singapore what they use for 7 it's a 5.

In Italy you use the thumb, index and medium to say "3". When my mom went to New York the first time... she ordered 3 coffees for 5 days and always got 2 because the tender could not see and count her thumb. On the 6th day she saw someone else using index, middle and ring finger and finally figured out: in the U.s. they count differently.

It's kind of nice to look at it too... as I imagine Amil to be the cute, little, chubby thumb under two big brothers.

So did you figure out why he shouted: "you bad brother" to Josh... and why he said that Kane had a brother that could be Pifo's interest "if you like the type"? He wasn't really pushing his beloved in his big brother's arms! He was trying to figure out a way to confess. Amil is very shy and also... not very good at communications as the language barrier is still pretty big for him.

And... does it finally make sense why Kane has 15 year old boy (going on 16 XDD) as a cook? A cook on Balthasar's ship is someone you must trust with your own life. Blood brothers are cool but your little brother is better XDDD.

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as for the order of the events: here goes the Memento cut.

Pifo vs JoshPifo is kissed straightPifo and QuoquePifo gets confused and Rose cannot helpFoxy visits LioPifo begins distributing cornKane and Castalia's first conversationPifo gives corn to the docWes and Kes dinnerJosh and Kane's conversationPifo gives corn to CastaliaCat and Calista's grapnel adventurePifo gives corn to Cat and CallistaKane confesses to CastaliaLio and Foxy do stuff and Foxy confesses his loveThe doctor in HellCassandra searches the room and read the journalCastalia wakes up but Kane doesn'tKane has a dream and is awakened by GiovanninoLio and Foxy return on the AlidiventoCat, Foxy and Wes go peeKane shows upPifo is still in tranceWes and Kane talk to PifoPifo is kissed gay againPifo starts the morning gymnasticsPea returns, Callista criesThe pirates get readyCat talks to Callista (so page 35 is the last one in chronological order).

Why Deda? Because it can be done...

I am still fixing stuff in this chapter - my work is keeping me away from life (I have started this post about 6 hours ago) and some things work better in the Italian version because of the existence of a certain verb called Imperfetto that helps keeping time transition a bit more blurry... (I am changing both versions to a more definitive time-line keeping the Inception b.s. to the minimum XDD)

Isn't that the best? You can write stories on post-its and move the post-its around :DIt's fun!That and... I'm an evil pirate!

19 comments:

Lots of imagery on the dream... I was wondering if Q.T. was trying to act like what Pifo claimed was his type (i.e. Accursed Boor) to get his attention, and maybe I'm a step closer to understanding that...I guess I understand what you meant about kissing someone straight, that Pifo's scare from Josh made it seem like he lost his desire for men (and veggies of a certain shape); I hope this means it's like what I believe, that fear should not completely define who you love...

Yeah, I've always wondered about that.Sign languages differ from Country to Country but numbers seem to be international. I only know a few sign in English and Italian... I wonder how different it is in Asia, for example!

I realized, after I moved to Singapore, tha Indians count using the phalanges... so but I don't know if they manage to count to 15 in one hand. I just see them go with the thumbs across the fingers. It's pretty interesting.

I have one more thing I'm wondering, which made Stormlight uncomfortable when I brought it up, later so I removed... I know that arousal is not usually the same as wanting, but it seems that here, in this chapter (Dr. Fynn, Pifo and Kane), and in other places (e.g. Cat in chapter 6), it is... Is there an explanation for that, perhaps that this was a simpler time with simpler pleasures, few if any stimuli besides the one you desire (no vibrating bus seats, for one thing)?

I was thinking more that someone sees a person is aroused while putting upon h/her and assumes s/he wants that, when it could have in fact been something else (I even hear tell that getting aroused easily can be a defense mechanism against getting too badly hurt)... I didn't know if I saw any instances where the characters were aroused by something different than actual desire, so this was another "false impressions" worry, that people wouldn't realize there could be other stimuli and that they didn't always want to act on it, or want something for real (like you would fantasize about being ravished, but not actually want anyone to have you against your will)...

Somebody might be aroused by the thought of being ravished, but not really want to be, and if someone actually forced somebody, and that person was aroused during it, it could be claimed as a justification, that the person must have wanted it...One more thing... I wanted to say that calling what happened to Pifo getting "kissed straight" or "kissed gay" would not be the best choice of words... his orientation did not change unless his sudden lack of interest in boys was accompanied by girls seeming more attractive, and his lack of enjoyment of the feel of long firm veggies between his hands was accompanied by an overwhelming desire to stick his fingers in a pie or something... just saying...

it's the perfect choice of words, they come from HIM, not others! So there's no label forced on the boy.

The confusion about one thing does not necessarily implies interest in other things... at times you just think you don't now who you are anymore without pressures from the outside world. Those are the real life crisis, no matter what Black Swan tried to make people believe. Inner conflict is a whole different thing.

For the other thing... I still don't know why that came to be and why should it be related to the comic - since I never touched that topic - so I still don't understand what you are talking about, sorry ^^"

I guess what I was saying about Pifo was just part of something I said before, that desire for one group of people should determine orientation more than fear of the other...As for the other thing, I was mainly thinking of this article... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/magazine/25desire-t.htmlThe statement I was looking for was page 8, that "arousal is not consent"; it doesn't say in this article, but it could probably happen just as much to men, that they can be erect for mysterious reasons which are not necessarily desire (the "bus seat" was one reason). Do you know what I'm saying now? Do you understand why I wondered why there was no other source for erections besides the people the men desired?

every character, just like people, has a mind of its own. I am sorry you cannot generalize like that. People fear different things.

There is no logic to fear and confusion... and people who are confused are confused and are not thinking straight.

I still don't see how all of this is related to the comic. There were plenty of other reasons why the guys on the ship got erections and it didn't have to do with liking or desiring the person in front of them... it had to do with rubbing, vibration, good morning call and men's nature.

I guess I assumed that desire was the only reason for arousal here because that was what was given the most attention, with the jabs and talk about problems... the "morning" bit was after a dream with Castalia in it, so I also thought that counted...

dreams are determined by surroundings. If you are in a nice smelling room you'll dream of flowers... if your dream of falling it's because your muscles just relaxed after a contraction and jolted... when, not if, you have an erection in the morning you'll dream about having sex.

So anyway, I guess I was trying to figure out how people could tell whether men's arousals stemmed from desire or something else at any particular moment--did Pifo really enjoy or appreciate Q.T. or was it something else?

the article you posted says the same exact things I've been telling you for months: everybody reacts to different things... it's all in the brain. Some are sane and have sane reaction some are not.It's all in the heads of people... some are aroused by feet, some by clothing or underwear. Some have fetish and others don't...

there's 6 billions of us.

As for Pifo... I don't know what floats his boat I only write a story.

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